LYON, FRANCE, 18 FEBRUARY 2009 - Of Sergei
Prokofiev's eight operas, The Gambler most likely
comes just after War and Peace, The Love of Three
Oranges and Betrothal in a Monastery in number of
performances. Based on a Dostoevsky short novel, adapted by the
composer for the stage, The Gambler follows the
Mussorgskian mode of heightened speech, with few moments of
lyric expansion. The opera was presented as part of a
Festival of Lost Heros (other productions were Philip
Glass' In the Penal Colony and Frank Martin's Vin
Herbé), but the only one presented at the opera house. In
the best "new" Lyonnaise tradition, the work was shifted from
mid-19th century Baden-Baden to contemporary Las Vegas, and of
course we were not spared an army of extras including three
chambermaids who washed the windows for a good ten minutes
before the opera began, a porter who traversed the stage far
too often with the same two valises, etc., etc. Director
Grzegorz Jarzyna encouraged the principals so that their
performances evoked Dostoevskyan themes, but some of the
stylized movements for secondary roles seemed out-of-sync with
the music and perhaps more appropriate to Shostakovich's
Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk.

Misha Didyk as Alexei in The
Gambler
Photo: Jean-Pierre Maurin

Misha Didyk in the title role of Alexei allowed us to hear a
tenor of great solidity throughout his range, but his acting
lacked the hallucinatory quality that should characterize his
personage. Kristine Opolais, despite unflattering costumes
(don't the designers ever look at the finished product?), was a
convincing Paulina with her gleaming voice that easily cut
through the orchestra. Alexander Teliga's General was a bit too
young, however powerful his bass voice, but what can be said of
the far-from-frail Babulenka of Marianna Tarasova, decidedly
not the doddering figure imagined by Prokofiev. Eberhard
Francesco Lorenz was definitely a lounge lizard as the Marquis,
while Andrew Schroeder's Astley, Vasily Efimov's Prince and
Maria Gortsevskaya's Blanche fulfilled their missions. There
was, however, little notion of social class in Jarsyna's
production, something that is nonetheless important in the
work.

Sets and costumes by Magdalena Maria Maciejewska must have been
in accord with the director's concept. While striking, allowing
us to watch all sorts of irrelevant byplay, the primary colors
of the décor gave little scope for subtlety, while remarkably
similar costumes for most of the women in the gambling scene
allowed little of the differentiation specified by the
composer. Kazushi Ono, newly appointed permanent conductor of
the Lyons Opera Orchestra, occasionally allowed the orchestra
to get out of control in what can sometimes be a noisy score,
but he never allowed tension to flag.

While not destined to be a pillar of the repertory, The
Gambler is nonetheless a valuable addition to the list of
works that merit periodic revival not only for its intrinsic
worth but also because it allows us to recognize an aspect of
Prokofiev's work that is usually relegated to a subsidiary
position. As a study of compulsive behavior it is also worth
attention from time to time.